We'd just
had a very long day on "The Woman of Mountain Dreams" (a long line
on Mt Wilson), followed by two days of recovery. After too much time doing
chores and working on the site, we're anxious to go back to Black Velvet Canyon
to climb Refried brains, one of the moderates on that wall we have not done
yet.

The route
takes a good looking line up the very left side of the Black Velvet wall,
on great rock. It's warm and sunny again today, so we take a late start, hoping
to climb the route in the shade. There are several cars at the trailhead when
we arrive; a couple of Italians leave the parking area just ahead of us (they
are going to Frogland).
The rest of the climbers are all on Dream
of Wild Turkeys. Our route is wide open. We reach the base as the first
pitch is about to get in the shade (the rest of the route gets in the shade
earlier, due to the huge buttress to the left).

After
a break, I start up the first pitch. Fun climbing, with good protection (although
not always everywhere you might want it) leads to a beefy bolted anchor just
left of the obvious white roof. Maybe a bit stiff for a Red Rocks 5.8+ (older
guidebooks call this pitch 5.9).

The next
pitch goes up just left of the belay, on small ledges, and flakes, which lead
into the large right facing corner. The climbing is interesting the whole
way. The pitch ends on ledges at the top of a pillar. Trad anchor required.
The "tree of a thousand slings" is now almost dead. It is 95% uprooted and
just barely hanging on, upside down over the edge by one small root… might
be good to cut it loose soon, before it falls down on someone.

Refried
Brains follows a good line on the left side of Black Velvet Wall.

Lucie
starting the first pitch (5.8+).

At
the bolted belay atop the first pitch.

Pitch
2 (5.8+) goes up ledges and flakes before traversing into the
large corner.

Getting
into the corner.

Getting
to the next pitch requires traversing right several feet to an obvious crack.
You step over the tree, then follow a 10" wide ledge. A bomber chain anchor
is found halfway across the ledge. Eric moves the belay there before I start
the crack pitch. This pitch is the crux (5.9). Up the obvious crack, past
a couple of offwidth sections, to its end at a chain anchor by a small tree.
It's about 160' long (Swain incorrectly shows this as two 160' pitches, and
Handren as a 150' pitch). It would probably be a rope stretcher with 50m ropes.

Next is
a short, easier (about 5.7?) pitch up blocky corners (one bolt) to a bolted
anchor just left of the arete. I stop there to reduce the rope drag on the
upper face.

From the
bolted anchor, it is a short steep pitch of face climbing (5.9) past 4 bolts
to another chain anchor. We rap down from here (very good rap route!).

Starting
the crux pitch (5.9).

Great
pitch, which follows a steep crack past a couple of offwidth sections.

Pitch
4 goes up blocky terrain (5.7?) before...

...traversing
left toward the bolted anchor.

A
short steep face (5.9) leads to another bolted anchor.

The climb
actually continues above this but the rest of the route has brittle/loose
rock and is not recommended by Handren. There are also no rap anchors above
this point, so continuing on requires climbing all the way to the summit of
Black Velvet Peak (1200' of 4th class…).

Nice day.
I think this route (as climbed to the end of p4) deserves three stars. RR
doesn't have that many good 5.9's and this is one of them.